Gear handling device



J. L. PALMATEER GEAR HANDLING DEVICE Filed July 10, 1967 Jam-13, 1970United States Patent Office 3,489,305 Patented Jan. 13, 1970 3,489,305GEAR HANDLING DEVICE Joseph L. Palmateer, 5701 Clermont Drive,Alexandria, Va. 22310 Filed July 10, 1967, Ser. No. 652,088 Int. Cl.B66f 9/12; B61k 5/00 U.S. Cl. 214-620 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREBACKGROUND In the past, the operation of installing draft gears in thesills of railroad cars has been a time consuming, dangerous onerequiring the labor of three men. The conventional manner of installingdraft gears is to use a derrick to lift the gear. The end of therailroad car is jacked up and the trucks rolled out from under the carbody. A worker must manually guide the gear into position adjacent thesill while the derrick operator lowers the gear into place. During thisoperation, the gear and derrick boom are at times above the workercreating a hazard to the worker. Once the gear is in place in the sillthe trucks are moved back beneath the car body which is then lowered. Inthe event the draft gear is not positioned properly, it cannot besecured and the above operation must be repeated. This Operationgenerally requires the service of three men.

With the present invention the procedure is simplified greatly. Theattachment is secured to a single tine of a fork-lift vehicle. The draftgear is placed on the platform and maneuvered into position by thevehicle. The platform can swivel about its support so the draft gear maybe positioned precisely adjacent the sill. In this manner the workman isat no time in danger and the operation is performed quickly and easily.

The object of this invention is to provide a device to facilitate theinstallation of draft gears in the sills of railway cars.

This object, as well as others, will become apparent from the followingspecification illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. l is a plan view of the invention in place on a fork lift truckadjacent the end of a railroad car;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the invention on a tine of a forklift truck, shown in broken lines;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional View taken on line 4 4; and

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view taken on line 5--5.

Referring now to the drawings for a more specific description of theinvention, the draft gear handler is comprised of an elongated beam 12,which is illustrated as a box beam. At one end thereof, a stirrup 14 issecured to the beam 12. The stirrup 14 is rigidly secured thereto bywelding or other suitable means. The stirrup 14 extends below the beam12 and forms, with the bottom wall 16, an opening 18 su'iciently largeto receive the tine 20 of a conventional fork lift truck.

A second stirrup 22 is secured to the beam 12 in the same manner andspaced from the stirrup 14.

A support member 24, which is rotatably mounted on the beam 12 at theend opposite the stirrups, is adapted to receive a draft gear or thelike. The support member 24 comprises a flat plate 26 having abearing'member 28 secured thereto. The bearing member 28 is illustratedas U-shaped with the legs 30 thereof secured to the plate 26 and thebight portion 32 resting on an extension 33 of the bottom wall 16.

A pivot pin 34 rotatably secures the support member 24 to the beam 12.

In this manner a draft gear 36 may be placed on the support member 24after the handler 10 has been attached to the tine 20 of a fork lifttruck 38. The truck may be moved to maneuver the gear 36 in positionadjacent the sill 40 of a railroad car 42. The rotational movement ofthe support member 24 permits accurate and easy alignment of the gear 36relative to the Sill 40 to facilitate installation therein. The forklift elevating means provides the necessary vertical movement.

It will be thus understood that the invention provides a means for safeand easy handling of heavy equipment such as railroad draft gears.

While the invention has been described in a certain embodiment, it isrecognized that variations and changes may be made therein withoutdeparting from the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed 1s:

1. In combination with a self-loading vehicle having a verticallymovable carriage carrying horizontally extending fork tines, a rigidbeam having a top, bottom, and side walls, a rst U-shaped stirrup havingits legs secured to the bottom wall of said beam and extending outwardlytherefrom adjacent one end of said beam, a second stirrup similarlysecured to said beam spaced along the longitudinal axis of said beam,said stirrups delining with the bottom wall of said beam openings forslidably receiving a single tine of said vehicle to support said beam ina horizontal position on said single tine only, said bottom wall of saidbeam being of a greater length than the other walls so that a portionextends beyond said other walls, a substantially planar support member,means rotatably mounting said substantially planar support member on theupper side of said portion, said mounting means having substantially thesame height as said other walls so that said support member can rotatefreely above said beam and in a plane adjacent the top wall of saidbeam.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,558,388 6/ 1951 Richardson214--620 2,622,750 12/1952 Ehlers.

2,773,615 12/ 1956 Conway.

2,957,594 10/ 1960 Brenneman 214-620 2,992,749 7/ 1961 Spillios 214-620lX 3,050,206 8/ 1962 McCracken 214-620 3,175,719 3/1965 Herndon 214-6203,258,146 6/ 1966 Hamilton 214-620 GERALD M. FORLENZA, Primary ExaminerROBERT J. SPAR, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 214-730

